


Warning Sign

by momotastic



Category: Leverage
Genre: Friendship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-13
Updated: 2012-03-13
Packaged: 2017-11-01 21:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momotastic/pseuds/momotastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The truth was that Eliot needed some time to think about what had happened that day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warning Sign

The truth was that Eliot needed some time to think about what had happened that day. So he did what he did best. He kept to himself as much as possible, worked and thought things through.

Yes, he noticed the confused and sometimes hurt glances that Hardison shot him. And he noticed how Hardison sometimes watched him when he thought Eliot didn’t notice.

Of course he noticed. If he didn’t notice people watching him he would have been dead long ago.

Usually when someone watches him, it makes Eliot tense and wary. He’s ready to strike and punch out the light of anyone who tries to get too close. 

With Hardison though, it was different. It didn’t make him edgy when Hardison watched him. Maybe a little nervous but not bad enough to lash out. Eliot knew that Hardison was looking for signs that would explain Eliot’s behavior for the last few days. 

The only thing that really bothered Eliot was the fact that he didn’t know why Hardison did it.

“You done staring at your spatula or do I need to help you with those scrambled eggs?”

Slowly he tore his eyes away from the kitchen tool and looked over to where Stella was leaning against the kitchen door. She was smiling – no, actually she was smirking.

Eliot quickly looked away again. He didn’t like the look on Stella’s face at all. It made him feel like he had been caught and that never happens. Not to him. Not to Eliot fuckin’ Spencer.

“Mind your own damn business,” he growled. 

Stella seemed unimpressed if the “pffft” sound she made was anything to go by.

“Whatever. Just make sure your bad temper doesn’t affect your fine cooking, alright?”

Eliot saw out of the corner of his eye how Stella left the kitchen again and wondered about his sudden feeling of disappointment.

Hardison hadn’t come by the diner since Eliot had caught him playing his game two days ago.

~*~

When he got home that night, Eliot’s mood had become worse.

There had been a group of college students who had found their way into the diner sometime during the afternoon. Eliot could hear them loudly discussing something that turned out to be the latest developments on _Torchwood_ and it pissed Eliot off that he actually knew that just by overhearing them mentioning the names Captain Jack and Ianto Jones. 

Hardison had made him watch that show – along with _Star Trek_ and _Doctor Who_ – and it annoyed Eliot to no end that he had actually enjoyed it.

Not that he would admit that. Ever.

Still, when he got home later that day he had to stop himself from telling Hardison about this. He did not want to break the distance they had built up since the day before yesterday. He was not ready yet. There still were things for him to figure out.

Like, why it bothered him so much to not hear Hardison laugh anymore. Or geek out about something like the new look of the TARDIS or the latest spoilers for _Supernatural_.

He went into the kitchen and made some dinner. Eliot still cooked enough food for two because not talking to Hardison didn’t mean that he would let the kid starve himself to death or be poisoned by microwave meals. Not that Eliot allowed them in the house anyway but better safe than sorry.

~*~

“So, why did you get all mad a few days ago?”

Eliot had been concentrating on getting those pancakes just right when Hardison broke the silence.

“Huh?”

“You know, when I was playing my game and you stormed out after catching me. It wasn’t just about me not buying any furniture, was it?”

Eliot kept his back to Hardison but his shoulders were tenser than before.

“Drop it, Hardison.” 

“No way, man. We’re living together. We can’t have any negative tension going on here!” 

Hardison was staring at Eliot’s back - he could feel it; he always felt it - as if he tried to make him turn around and say the truth by sheer willpower. 

Eliot shrugged dismissively. “Whatever.”

“Whatev-? Man, what is it with you and just telling the truth.” 

Hardison was close to throwing his hands up in the air and becoming really dramatic. Eliot could hear it in his voice.

“I’m a bad guy. I don’t say the truth.” 

He had used the _I’m a bad guy_ excuse before and he knew Hardison didn’t care about it. Probably because both of them had done more good than bad over the last year, but Eliot really just wanted to not have this conversation again.

He could hear Hardison getting up from where he sat at the kitchen counter and walk toward the stove. 

“Like hell you are. We gotta trust each other. How else are we gonna work together?”

Eliot was ready to bet any amount of money that Hardison was standing behind him with his hands on his hips, head tilted slightly backwards and his trademark _I’m very annoyed!_ bitch face. If Eliot weren’t so annoyed he might have laughed at the image. Instead he tried to make himself sound as matter-of-factly as possible. 

“We’re not working together anymore.”

“At the moment! Nate will call and we’ll be taking out bad guys again just like before.”

If he turned around now, Eliot was most likely to find Hardison gesturing wildly. 

Their argument was interrupted by Eliot’s sniffing to find the source of the sharp smell of burnt food before he realized that those were his pancakes. He cursed under his breath while discarding the black dough into the garbage can.

Hardison had apparently stepped back a little because when Eliot turned around to scowl at him angrily, Hardison was already behind the counter again.

“You happy now, Hardison?”

Shake of his head.

“Why the hell do you keep bringing it up anyway?”

Shrug of his shoulders.

“Well, you figure that one out and don’t bother me anymore.”

Nod of his head.

Eliot ran his hand over his face. He needed to calm down before going to work or Trevor and every stupid customer would be in for a beating. His patience would be wearing thin anyway though. Stupid Hardison with his stupid questions.

Hardison looked like he was frozen on the spot and Eliot decided that it was a good opportunity to leave before Hardison could come out of his catatonia.

~*~

He was grateful for the slow day at the diner. Stella had sent Trevor home as soon as Eliot had arrived and so he got to enjoy some peace and quiet in the kitchen. It gave him time to think.

When he went home that night he took as much time as possible to reach the apartment.

Sometime during the late afternoon he had realized what the problem was, and now he wondered how a man who usually read people in the blink of an eye and found out their weaknesses and what they were going to do even before they did – how someone like him was able to ignore all the warning signs of his behavior.

When he had stopped minding Hardison being in his small apartment and his personal space 24/7, he should have realized what was going on.

Looking back he figured that when he had stopped being seriously annoyed by Hardison’s geekiness it should have been his tell.

Of course it hadn’t been. 

Not even the fact that on very rare occasions he had almost slipped and called him “Alec” had opened his eyes. 

But when he found Hardison playing his stupid computer game and winning a virtual sword fight …

Eliot thought he would be annoyed by the guy’s inability to stop playing that game. He had expected to be angry because Hardison had been supposed to buy furniture and not procrastinate like the twenty-something geek-boy he was. 

No, Eliot hadn’t become angry or annoyed. Instead he had found it adorable – of all things! – that Hardison wasn’t able to hit an aim in reality even if it was three feet away, but fought easily with a sword as long as he used a mouse to do it.

When Eliot realized that he may be feeling something for Hardison he needed to process that.

Usually he dealt with strong emotions by taking off for a while, work out and think in peace.

This time he didn’t, because he knew that no matter where he went, Hardison would find him in faster than Eliot could say, “I’m from Oklahoma,” and drag him back while demanding an explanation. 

So, Eliot stayed and tried to put at least some distance between them. 

Wasn’t all that hard considering that Hardison learned fast not to get into Eliot’s way when he was brooding.

Still, he had started missing Hardison’s laughter and the way he would be lost in his world of geek for hours. And yeah, he missed him showing up at the diner for Eliot’s lunch break.

The three days of not actually talking to Hardison made Eliot realize that he was gone for the kid. 

Question was what he would do with the knowledge.

Whatever it was, it would have to start with talking to him again.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Coldplay.


End file.
